1. Field
The following description relates to an image processing technique of detecting objects and classifying image areas, and a neural network learning apparatus that processes image.
2. Description of Related Art
There are various computer-based visual image processing techniques. Object detection and area (region) classification using pixel labeling are two examples of techniques used for computer-based image processing. Engineer-designed features may be used with these techniques to recognize objects in an image. However, with recent technological development in the field of deep learning, an object detection technique and a pixel labeling technique using a convolution neural network (CNN) are considered as potential independent methods for object detection and image area classification. In particular, a method known as a faster region-based convolution neural network (faster R-CNN) is proposed for object detection. Faster R-CNN technique involves generating a bounding box using convolution layers and then applying a classifier thereto to detect objects. A method of fully convolutional networks for semantic segmentation, which uses only convolution layers, has been separately proposed for area classification.
Object detection techniques and image area classification techniques are independently performed in this manner and their results are merged in the final stage. Accordingly, features for the object detection and features for the area classification have been often extracted separately.